Second Chances
by Melissa2
Summary: Trance has a visitor, which gives an explanation for the events in Last Call at the Broken Hammer


Title: Second Chances  
Author: Melissa, aka ILH  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Last Call At The Broken Hammer, Pitiless As The Sun  
Central Characters: Trance  
Author's Note: I've been having some major writer's block and writing issues and this and the other fic I posted today aren't anywhere near my usual quality level. Both of them sounded much better in my head--where they probably belonged. Here's to hoping something will revive my good fic muse.  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Trance was sprawled out on her bed thinking, as she had been for the past several hours. The lies she had used during her interrogation floated around in her head. She did not blame the Inari or Professor Logich for what she had been forced to endure. She did not blame her people, however misguided some of them were. She did not blame Andromeda's crew for not being there and keeping a better eye on her. She blamed no one but herself.  
  
'You should've been more careful,' she scolded herself. 'You put everyone in danger when you were talking to Professor Logich.'  
  
a familiar voice entered her mind.  
  
Trance replied with shock. She was silent for several seconds, even her mind clear of thought.   
  
  
  
She sighed.   
  
His laughter filled her mind.  
  
  
  
A grinning purple man with a tail shimmered into view before Trance. She had almost forgotten how much he looked like her. She couldn't even remember how long it had been since they had last met. She was torn between hugging him and turning away.   
  
"So you really like this corporeal form, don't ya?" he asked.  
  
Trance decided to stay objective and not to let her emotions take over. "What about Rommie? Can't she see you?"  
  
"Nope, I've got that all taken care of. She sees you laying on your bed just like you were ten minutes ago. Now tell me what Logich did to you. I just heard about it an hour ago."  
  
"I'm fine. You can go back where you belong now before we both get in a lot of trouble, Orion."  
  
"C'mon. You know they won't do anything about it. And I'm just gathering a report to bring back, that's all. I'm not 'bored' or anything today."  
  
"I had to say something. What did you want me to tell him...the truth about all this? And if you already know what I said then why are you here?"  
  
"I caught word from someone who was watching." Orion shrugged.  
  
"Who was watching me?" Trance asked.  
  
"Does it matter? Any of us could be watching you at any time without you knowing about until we said something. That's what you get for taking this form for so long. Now, what happened?"  
  
"The program wasn't revealed...I lied to him," she replied, regret obvious in her voice.  
  
"You aren't turning sympathetic towards them, are you? 'Cause-"  
  
"It doesn't matter. Orion, you should go back where you belong. I don't want you to get in more trouble. I'm fine. Tell them that nothing has changed."  
  
"But you have." His attitude change as he stepped towards Trance.   
  
"I'm not different. Everything else just changed," Trance said softly.  
  
Orion wrapped his tail around Trance in a supportive hug. "If you ever want to go back-"  
  
"No, I like it here, Orion. I'm fine." It was apparent she was trying to convince herself of that fact as much as she was trying to convince him.  
  
"You're right about me going. And I won't tell the leader about this. You know what will happen if I do, even if he goes easy on you."  
  
Trance reached down and touched her tail. "Yeah, I don't want that happening. I love my tail."  
  
Orion stepped away and started shimmering out, but stopped and shimmered back. He kissed Trance on the cheek. "Bye!"  
  
"Bye," she whispered as he shimmered out for the final time. Her mind felt strangely empty without his words in it. "You're one of many of my brothers, but you've always been...special."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The reunion with Orion was fresh in Trance's mind as she stood in the Hammer. The bar was in the middle of enemy Kalderan fire. Shots flew through the bar, and many were dead already.  
  
Only she saw the shot fired towards the bartender, who she had a feeling wasn't just the bartender. Trance ran and leaped into the bartender, saving her from the enemy fire. Pain surged through her back as her tail flew across the bar.  
  
'Orion,' she thought, a tear in her eye. He had betrayed her.  
  
She wiped away the tear before anyone saw it, and tried to concentrate on her physical pain rather than her emotional pain.  
  
As Cory treated her tail, she offered Trance alcohol. She wasn't sure about it at first, but after a few gulps, Trance was beginning to understand the concept of poisoning oneself to mask feelings. Orion and her punishment were slowly fading from her mind. By the time she reached the bottom of the bottle, they were as far away as her home. She felt her mind slipping away into the abyss of sweet oblivion...  
  
After waking up with somewhat of a hangover, Trance managed not to trip and fall much during the clean up of the remaining Kalderan bodies. She couldn't really remember much of how she lost her tail, but she thought it was probably best that way. She did however know that she missed her tail very much. 'But it could be a lot worse...a whole lot worse,' she thought.  
  
Like a phantom limb, her tail began to itch. She didn't bother reaching back to scratch it, though. 'I wonder if I'll ever have a tail again...' she thought to herself. The feeling grew more intense. "My tail itches," she complained.  
  
"Then it's not really gone, is it?" Tyr asked.  
  
Orion's voice said in her mind.  
  
Trance smiled for the first time since she lost her tail. 'You'll be back,' she thought. 


End file.
